Extreme Composition with Jane Davies

This is the third small piece I did for one of the lessons with Jane Davies.  I like it this way, but also flipped upside down.  I think I'd like to try one of these three (I'm favouring the magenta one at this point) in felt and fibre on the needle felting machine.  Maybe over the holidays.  What am I thinking, I'm retired....it's always a holiday!!!  Maybe soon.....but then I'm still working on the last two lessons, so we'll see.  At any rate,
I'll be back....

Time. Time passing. Oh My!

Good grief, it's happened again.  Time is slipping by so quickly and I have been so distracted.  We are leaving in two weeks' time for our trip and I have been spending lots of time and energy getting (and keeping) myself together!  I've been playing with my new camera and getting organized.  But I did a few pics for the Jane Davies' Composition class (lesson 5) before putting my paints away.  Here's one:

I did this one on a brown paper bag!!  Lots of collaging first followed by a preliminary painted layer, then quinacridone nickel azo gold, paynes grey, titan buff and more, then more stamping, more collage...painted tissue paper, basically a bit of everything.  And sort of fun.....I often have trouble with the fun part because the intense part gets in the way...the got-to-get-it-right part...I have a lot of trouble putting that part away.  But it gets better! OK, off to do a bit more organizing....but not too intensely!  I'll be back.   

The self portrait.

OMG, this is a difficult thing to do, posting a picture, however changed, of oneself.  And the first ones I posted to the class were like offering up a limb!!!! But anyway, now it is a matter of simply fodder for the lines and shapes.  Such an interesting process, this art-making business.  As I said on the class blog, when you take an art class you bring out so much more than just paint!!! So, anyway, here is my latest take, literally!!  It's about 9 x 12, tissue paper image of moi over a painted background and then with all kinds of painted and stamped tissue paper on top of that.  Whew!
check out Jane's on-line classes.  http://www.janedaviesstudios.com/

Tiny treasures.

This vase was my mother's and it's one that I have always loved.  So, here it is as an altered photo using gesso over the background.  I've painted the pages with watercolours, painted the flowers onto tissue paper and then applied them with matte medium (I love this technique!!!), I've used oil pastels and the letters are from various magazines.  The flower design is taken from the vase itself.  I tried a rubbing but the curved surface of the vase wasn't terribly cooperative.  I used some Raw Sienna with Naples Yellow for the background of the vase.  Such yummy colours!!   I'll try Quinacridone Gold next time....it's too lovely!  I am having a lot of fun with the watercolours...I find that even doing colour wheels is so informative.  I've been looking a lot at work by David Bellamy, Shirley Travena, Karlyn Holman and Charles Reid.  And Paul Klee.  Oh wow!  There is so much to learn.
And now I'm going to be super busy again....two on-line classes with Jane Davies that start next week...check them out at http://www.janedaviesstudios.com/. It's not too late to join!

Gel transparency or The Transparent Lunch

This is a photo of my lunch (!!!) the other day.  I messed about a bit with it in photoshop elements, printed it out in black and white on inkjet photocopy paper and then covered it with numerous coats of gel medium.  I soaked it to remove the backing paper and then applied more gel medium to affix it to the prepared 9 x 12 background.  I like the way the background colours show through the transparency of the image. It's a fun technique.  This was for one of the lessons in Jane Davies' Text and Image class.    

An acrylic piece.

This is another piece I have done for Jane Davies' class ( http://www.janedaviesstudios.com/).  It is acrylic, 9 x 12 and collaged.  With a stamp that I made.  I'm still not quite there yet with the watercolours!!  But today, today I am going to get them out and even if all I paint is a grid, I am going to do it.  Yes! Yes, I am!!!  And I will post it tomorrow, no matter how it looks....there, I am committed.....see you tomorrow!  (If not, it's because I have been abducted by aliens and taken away to a remote area where there is no internet......what?....it's possible!)